


Bad News, Baby

by StarlightCaptivator



Series: As The Universe Expands [1]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Break Up, Drama Llama, Gen, M/M, Mech Preg, Sparklings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-01
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2018-04-12 05:20:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4466912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightCaptivator/pseuds/StarlightCaptivator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For as smart as the two scientists were, they sure were terrible at effective communication. </p><p>♫♪[Obnoxious daytime soap opera music]♪♫</p><p>On this installment of "As the Universe Expands", Brainstorm comes to terms with his formerly mysterious illness and prepares to tell his long-time lover his important revelation, only to make some troubling observations and so he parses his question.....</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the first in a _hopefully_ short series I fondly refer to as the Science Baby Drama Hour. It seems to be a universe where everything is 100x more dramatic, emotionally charged and angst ridden. ~~Welcome to Hell.~~ You can thank C_A for the title. Thanks for reading this self-indulgent silliness! ;D

"Hey Percy, what do you think of her?" Brainstorm canted his head minutely, motioning to the little blue minibot youngling across the way that had taken to following the waiter drone around Swerve's in an effort to help her creator out in running his bar. Perceptor glanced the way Brainstorm directed for a long moment before turning back to his drink.

"Her creation was irresponsible." He replied in turn. His voice slowly took on a scornful bend behind a facial expression meant to feign indifference. "Sparklings are a nuisance, and inefficient. They're clumsy little things that take up time and energy that could have been used for  _useful_  endeavors, had they been forged or constructed." Across the bar, as if to prove his point, the little bot stumbled and crashed to the ground, breaking the glasses she had been trying to carry.

Brainstorm's tone remained light and airy, with a tiny edge of teasing that made Perceptor hum a chuckle. "So no tiny lab assistants for you then? Have you ever considered mentoring?" The ex-Wrecker in question relaxed some, looking thoughtful.

 "I have actually. Once things are more rebuilt and stable. I'd be glad to take in a newly forged mind that shows promise. No sparklings though. Too many unknown variables there..." Brainstorm watched his companion in silence as his optics darted about a moment before landing on the datapad he was holding. "What do you have there, Brainstorm? It's not like you to write down much in public." It was a most blatant subject change.

 "Oh, this old thing?" He replied, his face-mask and smooth tone easily rolled out the lie. "I was actually considering some frame redesign is all, nothing work-related about it." Perceptor's expression turned incredulous, and he cycled his optics at Brainstorm a couple times.

 "Was  _that_  what you wanted me here for? Redesign help?" He began to reach across the table for the datapad, but just as quickly, Brainstorm had it stowed in his subspace. He missed the flash of a pained expression Brainstorm couldn't suppress for a split second.

 "Nah, I had something else to talk to you about." Brainstorm's tone got softer, and Perceptor sat up straight as the overall mood in their booth seemed to shift.

 "Brainstorm?" He asked, but the jet in turn raised his hand to silence his companion.

 "I just wanted to spend some time with you before I said this. You're like one of my  _favorite_  people after all." He took hold of his drink - something lower-energy and bubbly - to fidget with it. He stared down into it for a few moments before glancing up at Perceptor. 

 "This thing we do." He motioned for a moment between the two of them to indicate exactly what 'thing' he was talking about. "We gotta stop, Perc. I think we should stop...seeing... each other as we do." 

 Perceptor was silent a few kliks, taking in Brainstorm's words and rolling them over in his processor again and again. "...May I ask why?" he questioned, tone softening to Brainstorm's level. He didn't bother hiding the disappointment in his voice. "If... there is a reason?" 

 "There is." Brainstorm answered, and Perceptor found his vents hitched in awaiting the verdict. "If I'm to be perfectly honest with you, I've found myself more attached lately." His hand came up again, indicating that he didn't want to be interrupted, even with this confession. "But I know you don't feel the same way. I knew when we started this." 

 He shifted a little to let his winglets gain more comfort. "We both know I like attention, but I know I don't have yours." His voice had a little more mirth for a moment and his winglet flicked to where a sporty white bot was sitting at the big middle table, laughing boisterously. 

 Perceptor's expression shifted minutely into guilt, likely just the surface of what he was really feeling. "I'm not gonna be someone's second Perc. Not even yours." Brainstorm reached out and patted one of Perceptor's hand for a moment. "I want to remain your friend, though- and your colleague, of course." He pushed his drink away.

  "Go get 'im." Brainstorm stood up-; smooth, calculating. 

 Perceptor watched as Brainstorm left - fled really - and Perceptor felt that perhaps he had missed something very important along with the fact that he had hurt someone dear to him. He decided to allow Brainstorm some time before deciding to speak to him about this again.

 

When he got to his quarters, Brainstorm triple locked himself in and withdrew his datapad right away. Sinking down to sit with his back at the door, he activated it and opened the first blueprint. His spark hurt at looking at the plans for a frame he had been working on for the newspark orbiting his own. 

This was stupid. He felt stupid. He had walked into Swerve's intending to tell Perceptor about their impending offspring, but after some troubling observations prior to the meeting, he needed to know for certain. 

Now that he did, it was hard to halt the self-loathing roiling up and making his fuel tanks churn. Brainstorm withdrew the stylus from his datapad to begin editing the blueprints. He changed the face shape, shapes of the body, coding for color nanites and tentative alt-mode coding until only traces of the unborn mech's sire remained. When he finished building the frame and decanted the newspark into it, his offspring would do the rest. 

He deleted the spark images on the datapad he had planned to show Perceptor earlier and quadruple encrypted it before stowing it back in his subspace. 

 

It took weeks upon weeks of convincing, calling in favors and outright begging for Brainstorm to convince First Aid to come in for a house call. It wasn't a moment too soon, as he was valiantly trying to keep his chestplates closed by hand as he was coming in. It sent the protectorbot into a panic at first but when he realized to what extent Brainstorm had planned this, the rest of the scientist's emergence was spent with First Aid angry enough to spit between orders.  When newspark had fully emerged and been guided into the frame Brainstorm had built, there was no negotiating with the medic. He dragged the both of them through the ship to the medbay in his altmode with sirens screaming all the way there. 

 

Once his spark had been stabilized (who even knew emergence could be that dangerous? not Brainstorm), and his sparkling had been properly taken through his first on-lining protocols, Brainstorm was treated to an earful on two ends from both First Aid and Ratchet and they harped on  _forever_   about safety  _this_  and you almost died  _that_  until he managed to look properly cowed and the medics were calm enough to even ask him what he wanted to  _name_   his offspring. 

The offspring in question was cradled partially set up in Brainstorm's arms, happily experimenting with chewing on his brand-new fingers. "His designation is 'Fission'." Brainstorm announced proudly, and the mechlet looked up at him for a moment before screwing up the smugest expression a newborn could before clapping clumsily a few times. 

"And the sire?" Ratchet asked sounding like he wasn't exactly keen on hearing the answer. 

"Is not in the picture." Brainstorm said, idly testing the bond between himself and his creation under the direction of First Aid and with the help of a machine hooked to his chest plates. 

"That's not what I asked." Ratchet replied, entirely unamused. "That much was obvious from how weak your spark is right now. Fission's been living solely off your spark energy for a long time. Now tell me so I can finish filling this out: which dumbaft left you high and dry after sparking you up?" 

"I'm not telling." Brainstorm replied indignantly in turn. "If something happens to Fission that requires something of his sire then I will, but until then: my vocalizer is muted. You can put down that I didn't tell, I know you can." The look Ratchet gave him for that could've stripped paint, but he continued. "While I'm at it, I'm requesting that his files go under your highest medical encryption until he's at the point where he's in his final upgrades and no longer under my care." Ratchet grumbled, but assented. In retaliation, Ratchet kept Brainstorm confined to the medbay for a full day longer than he needed for his spark to gain strength.


	2. Chapter 2

A few days after release, Brainstorm introduced Fission to his lab; or rather, he introduced Fission to  _part_  of his lab. He had cordoned off a loaded weapon free area for the tiny mech to occupy, complete with a set of tools all his own and probably harmless junked prototype inventions with which to bang on. 

As a finishing touch, he produced a tiny blast-mask and affixed it to the bitlet's face... Just in case, of course. Satisfied with what he saw, Brainstorm made his way to the other side of his lab to get to work. 

He had just gotten arms deep in a project in the most literal sense when his door pinged visitors and slid open to allow entry to Chromedome and Rewind... and Perceptor. 

"Hey Brainstorm!" Rewind said, making his way over and attempting to angle in to see what Brainstorm was working on, even as he was trying to angle away so the archivist couldn't see. "Domey and I heard you spent some time in the medbay, so we thought we'd come see how you're doing. Soooo, How're you doing?" He was so busy trying to dodge Rewind's prying camera that he didn't notice Chromedome wandering until a startled series of binary beeps sounded from the corner. 

"Hey Rewind, get a load of this! Someone let Brainstorm watch their bitlet." Off like a shot, the tiny archivist had all but forgotten about Brainstorm's invention in favor of the newspark. Unable to help himself, Brainstorm's optics jerked to silent Perceptor. The bot in question wore a sudden scowl, and was making his way over to see too. Once he had wrenched himself free of his project, Brainstorm quickly shuffled over. 

"I've never seen this little one before~!" Rewind said, voice a-coo at Fission. Fission stared up with wide blue optics at the unfamiliar adults, he clutched a tiny spanner to his chest and shuffled backwards farther into his corner. "Who's is he, Brainstorm?" Rewind asked, looking up as Brainstorm made his way over. At the sight of his creator, Fission abandoned his spanner and raised his arms several times towards him in quick succession. He pushed apprehension over their bond, even as he was reached for and picked up. 

Worst. Conspirator. Ever. 

"Er.." Brainstorm reset his vocalizer as the bitlet hid his face. "He's mine." 

The silence this statement earned him was deafening. Chromedome looked confused, bordering on disbelief. A thrill of cold terror ran up Brainstorm's backstrut as Perceptor's expression indicated that he was figuring through it, but it was Rewind and his contemplative nature that saved him for a moment. "Who's the.... ah, other creator?" 

Brainstorm puffed right up. "Come now, Rewind. A genius such as ~moi~ doesn't ne-" 

"Cut the  _slag_ , Brainstorm!" 

He cut off mid word and took in the pinched expression on Perceptor's face. 

"Why didn't you  _tell_  me you got sparked up?" Chromedome and Rewind shuffled out from between them, the latter only by the virtue of Chromedome's quick thinking that pulled him out of the way. He had no doubt the little datastick was recording the brewing storm, and a recap from said storm would end up in the  _Lost Light Insider._

Brainstorm's winglets hiked defensively.  "Because I knew you'd react in an altogether  _terrible_  manner." He cracked out dryly and he knew the accompanying derisive look struck home, even with his mask in place. "I didn't want to  _Wreck_  Fission with any possible negative spark energy on your part." Perceptor's mouth hung open for a split second in shock. 

"We're bringing  _jobs_  into this, Brainstorm?  _You_  are bringing  _jobs_  into this?" 

The argument escalated from there into a shouting match, culminating in Perceptor shouting "How could you  _be_  such an irresponsible, aft-brained  _glitch?"_

Brainstorm stiffened quite visibly, his expression plainly showed a deep hurt. All at once Perceptor regretted his words.

"... It takes at least two to make one of these, you know." He said with a helm motion towards Fission, voice back down to acceptable levels. "And as I remember, you had no problem throwing yourself with abandon into pounding my-"

"Ooookay, that's quite enough of that." Chromedome stepped forwards and in between mad scientist and angry scientist, hands raised in the universal gesture of placation. "You're  _both_  upsetting the little one."  All the attention on the room pinpointed on shaky little Fission. 

"You  _both_  need to calm down, and discuss this in  _neutral_  area without Fission present.  _Later."_

Brainstorm considered Chromedome's words before turning his back on all of them. "I want all of you out.  _Now."_

Chromedome and Rewind hesitated, but assented, while Perceptor lingered at the door frame. "This isn't over, Brainstorm. You're not going to get out of this talk." 

"Yeah? We'll see." Brainstorm sent the command to close and lock the door, and once the object of his strife was on the other side of the reinforced door Brainstorm sunk to the floor, Fission held securely to his chestplates. 

"Well kiddo," He said, the timbre of his voice raw with static. "That was your sire." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These assholes, amirite? ( I gotta tell ya, it's hard as s h i t to keep on the _**drama**_ bomb. :,D )


	3. Chapter 3

There wasn't any way for the news _not_ to spread around the Lost Light. Upon hearing the news, several well-meaning bots went straight to Ultra Magnus under the assumption that there was a built-in clause against bots like Brainstorm reproducing. He assured them that no- he was well within his rights.

He was placing a placard on his office door explaining such when Rewind approached."Afternoon, Ultra Magnus!" Magnus nearly startled out of his armor from the combination of silent pedes and a peppy voice, but he managed to maintain his composure. He eyed Rewind warily, and in turn Rewind's demeanor was placid.

 "...Is there something I could do for you, Rewind?" He questioned, though he had a creeping feeling he knew the answer. The little archivist went into a similar mood when he had learned Skids and Swerve were expecting a sparkling, and again when the little femme was decanted into her frame. As far as Ultra Magnus knew, Rewind had managed to get _everyone_ on the ship to give their thoughts on the matter, even if a few of those at the end featured a mech driving away from the data stick while he ran after shouting his most important questions. News or plans about sparklings outside his little cohort suddenly dried up overnight for fear of interrogating.

 Rewind beamed up at him. "Do you have time for a few questions?"

 Ultra Magnus eyed him in turn "Do the questions have anything to do with the legality of Brainstorm reproducing?"

 The datastick's expression was the picture of innocence. "Of course not, Magnus." He fidgeted for a moment, before motioning towards the office door. "We went over that in length with Swerve's, remember?"

 Oh, but did Ultra Magnus remember.

 He soldiered through the increasingly sappy questions, and when Rewind was finished,he extracted a promise from the small mech that in the event that another bot became sparked that he would just forward the questions he intended to ask to Ultra Magnus.

 From there, it was pandemonium.

 Rewind was _everywhere._

 Rodimus found him sitting in his office when he least excepted it: "Brainstorm  and Perceptor, you say? Good! We could always use another nerd on board."

 He was the last out of Swerve's bar one night.  "Primus, Rewind, you scared the slag out of me! ...What I think of Brainstorm and Perceptor having a bitlet? Well, I read the Insider. It's a damn shame his sire doesn't want him, or whatever.  "

Skids took that moment to pop out from the back room,  his and Swerve's rolly-polly bitlet asleep under his arm. "Doesn't want him? " he asked, sounding incredulous. " _I_   heard that Fission was an acci-.... unexpected surprise."

Swerve folded his last bar towel, and shook his helm. "No way. Brainstorm's weirdness....extra weirdness, has been because of the bit. My bet's on Perceptor's bad reaction adding to the whole thing. I remember my actuators were in an awful twist before you knew about _our_ sparklet."

The assessments trended downwards from there. Megatron refused to answer the questions, instead mumbling something with a mocking lilt about the 'Rights of Sentient Beings' before walking off.

Mirage was unfailingly polite, even as he regurgitated the ever-evolving gossip that was making the rounds. "With the understanding that not all relationships can work out, even before the war, before such things as sparklings became rare, it was understood that one did not simply abandon the carriers of their newsparks." His tone was that genial and silky smooth towers accent, with an edge of scorn not belayed on his smiling face.

Whirl was extolling the virtues of having another 'nerd' around as well, especially one that was part of his favorite weapons designer. He could be found clacking his claws together gleefully all up until Ultra Magnus came around to tell him in a unanimous design by command to bar him from 20 mechanometers within _any_ sparkling, not just Fission.

Getaway had two interviews, in the first he spoke on how cute and well behaved Fission was, he neatly avoided any talk of the little mech's parentage.

The second told a different tale, however. It was just after an incident with a newly fledged Fission and what appeared to be a miniature "My First Blaster". Getaway had been a favorite target of the little flier, and he still had the three scorch marks on his aft in a perfect triangle to prove it. "I've been betrayed." He lamented. "I thought the little guy wanted to be friends."

 The medbay ended up being Rewind's second to last stop in his journey of... 'information'. Ratchet lasted all of a minute of talk about patient confidentiality before the little archivist simply said "We all know it's Perceptor, we just want to know your thoughts on the matter."

 Ratchet's scowl deepened, he crossed his arms over the expanse of his chest plate. "All I'm going to say is that he came very close to having another body in cold storage that night." He moved back to what he was doing with a dark and pointed look. 

 Rewind and First Aid watched him go before turning back to each other. "That was a bad night." First Aid supplied with a shrug. He clapped his hands together as he stood up straight. "Anyways!" Let me tell you what my part in Fission's emergence was, if so that we can prevent such..... hard-headedness in the future." 

 Rewind's last mark was none other than Brainstorm himself, but in a strange show out of character for him, he didn't use potential camera time to brag. 

 He didn't use it at all. 

 For whatever reason, Rewind could never find himself in the same place with the wayward flier. 

 It got to the point that he just gave in and gave Chromedome a list of questions on a datapad for the next time he saw his friend. When he returned again, he reported that Brainstorm didn't answer the questions and he certainly wouldn't be answering any in the near future. It was only after Rewind threw his arms up in defeat did he start magically finding himself in Brainstorm's presence again. 

* * *

Rewind's interviews had a last side-effect, most apparent to one. While he wouldn't go as far to call it libel, Perceptor had never had his name dragged through the figurative mud in such a manner before. It drew attention he didn't like as well as drew some of his friends away from him, until long conversations that were starting to feel redundant helped to resolve some questions.  

Most confounding of all was that the longer that he chewed on the issue of being a sire, the longer he found he couldn't wrap his mind around it. 

He'd be a liar if he said that being a sire was anything he wanted. He'd be a worse liar if he tried to say that he had developed any interest in being one now. 

Perceptor's interest now sounded chilly even to his own meta. Of course he had a carnal interest in Brainstorm still- that hadn't faded with the new developments, but his interest in Fission was of a scientific nature.

 He had heard through the grapevine that the sparkling was smart, he had seen and felt the effects of Fission's already brilliant processor when the small flier had appeared in front of him one day, hovering on little thrusters and armed with a tiny blaster. Perceptor had been tagged on his lens housing by a low-powered beam, and with wild cackling giggles Fission took off with Ultra Magnus hot on his heels. 

 Perceptor had been impressed, and he decided then that it was time to have that conversation with Brainstorm he had been putting off. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're approaching the end! The next chapter will be the shortest. 
> 
> I've had a lot of fun with this ~ _ultra dramatic_ ~ universe, I hope you've had fun reading this indulgent stuff! :,D


	4. Chapter 4

It had been harder to corner Brainstorm than Perceptor originally thought it would. He had gotten so used to tailoring his schedule around avoiding his colleague that breaking out of the habit became a formidable task.

 Plus, there was Fission. The little mech was an uncontrollable variable in this whole mess. Perceptor wanted to have a chance to speak to Brainstorm without the tiny flier present, but he was hard pressed to find him without the little flier, at least in public.

Perceptor eventually bit the bullet, and showed up at Brainstorm's lab when he knew he'd be there. He pinged at the entry and stood straighter, resolving that now he had taken the first step, there was no going back. And so he waited.

And waited.

And waited for long enough that he was about to lose his nerve and leave when the door finally slid open. "You really _are_ just going to stand there all day if I don't let you in, aren't you?" Brainstorm's tone was a cautious sort of optimistic, lined with an edge of unsure playfulness thought formerly lost between them. 

Perceptor replied in kind. "I had planned so- unless something suddenly required my attention."

Brainstorm let out a soft hum of approval before stepping aside to allow Perceptor entrance... He honestly seemed tired. 

His lab was just as a safety hazard as it was the last time Perceptor had been there, if anything it was worse. Experiments were akimbo on every surface to make room for an expanded pen for Fission. Blast panels had been applied to the pen as sort of a makeshift shield, and Perceptor quickly shunted off any thought for what may have caused a need for such a thing off for later analyzing. He looked over the mechling himself, who looked back at him curiously in turn in his pen, where he was strapped to the wall by a harness and a cable.

" It's so he can't fly away." Brainstorm said with a clear of his throat. "Even in alt. He's been fledged for a while, you know. " His tone wasn't any sort of negative or aggressive, as one might expect from such words, instead, his tone was more akin to someone 'testing the waters', in a way far too subtle for Brainstorm.

He had probably practiced saying similar things.

Perceptor felt his spark constrict in a funny manner at the thought,a new thought thread popped into his mind.

It was a compromise, one that would keep whatever part of his meta was rebelling so hard against the idea of being a proper sire placated.

Brainstorm looked upon him with expectation, and he worked up his courage. 

"Ah, I came to see, if perhaps you two were in need of some assistance... with your various experiments, that is....."  Perceptor couldn't keep the waver out of his voice, made worse by the perceived scrutiny of his colleague. Some little part of him wasn't sure Brainstorm wouldn't refuse the veiled offer outright. It was no offer to any semblance of what was before- no, nor was it offered out of anything like pity or duty; but anyone with a working optic could see Brainstorm had a tough gig. 

 Brainstorm smiled behind his mask after a moment of humming contemplation, apparent most in the crinkle of his eyes. "I think we'd like that, Perce."

 Fission vocalized his professional agreement from his pen. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnd there we go! The one with the neutral/happy ending. If you are a connoisseur of emotional pain, click the next in the series button. :D 
> 
> I'm going to play in this universe again, but for now I'll be focusing on other stuff before my second to last quarter in university can kick my ass too hard. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading this indulgent piece! I appreciate all the kudos and the comments, even If I'm super slow at replying! :,3c Have a happy new year, y'all.


End file.
